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Databases are your best friend. They help with everything from images to full text articles on topics for your craft. Whether you need references on craft technique or just some ideas to get started on your next project, the library databases are one of your best resources available.

In the above image, you can see a screenshot of the OCAC Library website. The main page will look a little different, giving you access to the online catalog as well as some info about your library. Here on the “databases” tab, you can see just a few of the amazing databases available to the OCAC community. These top three here have specialized log ins that you can inquire about at the circulation desk (or give us a call). Other databases, including the amazing Academic OneFile, are provided through the Washington County Cooperative (of which our library is proudly a member). For these all you need is your library card and you can access the databases.

All of the databases can be accessed from school or from home once you have the proper log ins.

Does your project have mythological themes? Check out the Mythology database!
World War I inspired? We have history databases!
Working on a multicultural project? Take a look at the Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia, CultureGrams, North American Indian, or the New Encyclopedia of Africa!

There are so many great resources floating around in the digital ether. Come to the library to inquire further or explore them at your own leisure.

[Byline: The Golden Spider Silk at the V&A showcases the world’s largest pieces of cloth made entirely from spider silk].

“Simon Peers explains the spectacle before us. ‘If we hadn’t made this permanent, this silk would be webs in the wind. That’s part of the magic. Something so ephemeral and yet somehow we’ve managed to capture it.'” (24)

“[F]or the viewer the question arises as to whether the wearer of a Ritchie ornament is being adorned and their personality expressed, or instead, whether the wearer’s body operates as a mobile gallery, showcasing Richie’s expressive material poetry, inviting approach and contemplation. Paradoxically, like much fine craft today, Ritchie’s work is more often seen in a pristine gallery setting or published photograph, without the modifying effects of wearer, garments, or other objects, or particular social contexts of use. While the gallery setting focuses the viewer’s attention on the works, it does not indicate the idiosyncratic and complex manner in which the jewelry will be incorporated into socia life.” (26)

Andre Woodward: My work is definitely time-based. There are about three different timelines going on in each piece. The tree grows. In the sound pieces, you need to consider the duration of the soundtrack, and in the pieces that incorporate lighting systems, you have that time going on as well. And then you have the time during which you are interacting with the work. I produce sculptural work because, with sculpture, there is you and the piece. There is not a flat divide—you and the piece occupy the same space. Once you realize that the sculpture is alive, something happens. You start to be sympathetic to the life-force. It isn’t merely an object. It’s a living thing. (29)

“Of course, big corporations are just as adept at manipulating the rhetoric of sustainability as young makers. But craft does have a special advantage. In the effort to promote more self-aware ways of living, the simple act of making by hand signifies direct engagement with an object, and therefore a degree of personal responsibility. Certainly, not every craft object is made sustainably; we have to get real about that. But the lesson of postmodernism is that the power of the image is not to be denied. It’s not enough to make things responsibly; we need to call on mass media to constantly remind the public of what responsibility might look like.” (023)

An excerpt from Glenn Adamson’s response to the questions: Is there a sustainability aesthetic? If so, how would you describe it, and which artists exemplify it?

“Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue: Would you concede that you create zany correlates of the body that maneuver between the abstract and the figurative?

Peter Shelton: This whole figurative versus abstract stuff comes from faulty thinking after World War II, suggesting that Modernism was fundamentally a battle between representation and abstraction. I don’t see it as one leading to the other or exceeding the other. It comes down to achieving some core expression, and the “hows” of getting there follow from that.

MDD: Do you mean that idea trumps process?

PS: Nothing is that simple. I mean that it’s inaccurate to see my work as growing linearly from abstract to real or simple to complex, or the reverse. Unlike many of my formalist predecessors, I don’t work linearly, evolving from project and situation to the next project and situation–ideas continue to circulate […]” (41)

“Becky Huff Hunter: You appropriated the language of the Occupy movement to demonstrate that Arte Povera is now “the property of the 1%.” Why did you choose to align yourselves with this movement?

Triple Candie: The movement is a topical subject and one we believe in. Most art that is deemed culturally significant is the property of, or controlled by, a wealthy micro-sliver of the population. For art (with a small a) to become Art (with a capital a), it must enter this
territory of privilege. This process is fundamental. Arte Povera has been thusly transformed, its dirt and stones now sleeping under bulletproof glass. It is a wonderful illustration of an age-old problem that has become only more acute in our lifetime.” (12)